Reflecting on Patricia Wilde, a graceful dance legend
One of the privileges and pleasures of being a journalist is meeting all kinds of people. While they’re all important, some interviews linger in your memory for years.
The time I spent with former Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre artistic director Patricia Wilde in 2018 was one of them. I wasn’t in Pittsburgh during her heyday with the company from 1982 to 1996 and had only done a couple shorter phone calls with her until then. This time, however, I got to spend a few hours with her during one of her regular visits to PBT headquarters in the Strip District.
She was 88 at the time, and the occasion was a new book about her life by Joel Lobenthal, an editor for Ballet Review. She also was inducted that summer into the National Museum of Dance’s Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. As a veteran principal of New York City Ballet — and a favorite of its co-founder George Balanchine — she was a living dance legend.
But what stood out to me as we walked together through PBT’s studios and sat for a conversation was her humility and grace. Talking with her about her storied career felt like catching up with an old friend. Even though she was in her late 80s, she still had the posture of a prima ballerina.
Her commitment to the artform never waivered, either, particularly when it came to getting more live music at PBT performances.
“I think I’ve talked to the right people,” she told me. “I keep trying.”
That goal became her last wish. Wilde died July 17 — a day after her 93rd birthday — following a brief illness. In lieu of flowers, Wilde’s family requests that people make donations to PBT’s live music appeal in her honor. Launched in 2019, its goal is to raise enough funds to sustain live music at the ballet for the next 50 years.
In the weeks since her death, Wilde’s daughter, Anya Davis, said this should be a time to celebrate her rich life.
“I think the best statement was made by my nephew when he dropped off a picture,” Davis said. “He said, ‘I never knew how famous she really was. She was always just Gram.’”
A dancer is born
Wilde was born July 16, 1928, in Ottawa, Canada, and was raised on a working farm. Her father was an engineer, and her mother commercially farmed the family’s estate. She wasthe youngest of five children.
She took an interest in dance at just 3 years of age after her older sister, Nora, started taking classes.
“She always said it was her passion,” her daughter recalled. “Once she saw her sister taking classes, she always wanted to do it and ended up stealing the show a couple of times.”
The sisters studied together in Ottawa. In 1942, Wilde’s older sister — who also went on to dance professionally — won a scholarship to the School of American Ballet. Wilde joined her in New York City the next year.
Wilde began working with Balanchine in 1945, when she was part of a small group of dancers he took to perform at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. That’s when he choreographed the first of many roles for her.
“He was always challenging her skills, and that’s what she loved,” Davis said. “She loved being able to perfect everything she was doing, and she had a passion for passing that knowledge and joy in dance on to her students and her company members.”
Not long after the Mexico City trip, Wilde joined Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, where Balanchine was chief choreographer, and toured the country. In 1948, Balanchine’s New York City Ballet gave its debut performance. He invited Wilde to join the company 18 months later. During her 15-year tenure as a principal dancer, her repertory with Balanchine’s company included 40 roles and extensive domestic and internationaltouring.
“She had extraordinary technique, which is what I think drew her to Balanchine and Balanchine to her,” said longtime PBT artistic administrator Bob Vickrey, who also danced professionally. (When Vickrey came to PBT 26 years ago, it was Wilde who hired him.) “She could move so quickly, so rapidly and jump like nobody’s business.”
Vickrey got to see her talents firsthand as a dancer with Harkness Ballet, a start-up company in New York in the 1960s and ’70s. After retiring from the stage, Wilde worked at Harkness Ballet School as its director. Her husband, George Bardyguine, was the production stage manager.
The couple wed in 1953 and had two children, Anya and Youri. Wilde’s husband died in 1994 at age 74.
Wilde also taught and coached dancers at New York City Ballet and later joined American Ballet Theatre’s rehearsal staff and its school’s faculty, where she directed its scholarship program.
Pittsburgh bound
In 1982, Wilde became PBT’s artistic director, a rare role for a woman at the time.
“There were hardly any in the world,” said costumier Janet Groom Campbell, who’s worked with PBT since 1973. She remained close friends with Wilde until her death.
According to Campbell, thengeneral manager Eugene Tanner suggested Wilde for the position.
“When she came to Pittsburgh, it was wonderful because she had carte blanche with [Balanchine’s] ballets because he trusted her so much,” Campbell said. “We didn’t have to have a répétiteur come in and teach them all the time because she knew a lot of them.”
Wilde elevated PBT’s position in the professional dance world by bringing more classical pieces to its repertoire. She also had a knack for pushing boundaries with innovative works. One of her most notable commissions was with Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin. In 1986, PBT premiered “Tabula Rasa” in his Gaga movement style. (The Pittsburgh Dance Council recognized Wilde at a performance in February 2020 that included an expanded version of “Tabula Rasa” on the program.)
Wilde also founded creative inhouse positions, including having a resident choreographer and composer during her tenure, and encouraged more touring.
“It was wonderful things like that that would happen here, and we were all very excited to be part of it,” Campbell said.
Wilde had great attention to detail. When Campbell had to make PBT’s costumes for Balanchine’s “Serenade” — one of Wilde’s favorite ballets — she had New York City Ballet send one to Pittsburgh for Campbell to copy.
“She stood beside me while I cut all the skirts,” Campbell recalled, laughing. “By the end I was a wreck, but I was glad she was there. She was always positive, supportive and kind.”
Of course, live music was a must in her classes.
“It didn’t matter how old the kids were, either. It was a live pianist,” her daughter said. “I remember hearing stories about using a CD machine and it would never work or skip to the wrong place.”
Wilde always wanted what was best for her dancers, on and off the dance floor. She would attend their wedding and baby showers.
“Thenshe would say to me, ‘I wish they’d eat more,’” Campbell said. “It wasfunny to hear both sides.”
When dancers started their own families, she strived to make PBT a comfortable environment for them. Davis remembered one time during “Nutcracker” season Wilde gave up her bigger dressing room so a dancer with an infant could put a crib in it.
Wilde retired in 1996 and enticed Terrence Orr to replace her as PBT’s artistic director. Even after her retirement, PBT’s dancers were still a top concern.
“Throughout the pandemic, I did FaceTime with her and she would ask, ‘ How are the dancers? Are they getting their classes?’” Vickrey said. “Her thoughts were always for them. She didn’t even know most of them personally at that point.”
A legacy goes on
Retirement didn’t slow Wilde down. She stayed in Pittsburgh at an independent living facility until thepandemic, when she went to live with her daughter in Virginia. She was a regular at PBT performances and company events. A small gathering at the Duquesne Club was held for her in June, with Wilde in attendance, to celebrate her lifetime achievement award from the NationalSociety of Arts and Letters.
She also got a chance to talk with PBT’s new artistic director Susan Jaffe, who had Wilde as a teacher in New York City.
“Susan asked her if she remembered her and my mom said, ‘Absolutely I remember you,’” Davis said. “She was very, very happy with Susan taking over the company now.”
Beyond ballet, Wilde loved dogs, with a soft spot for Rottweilers. Traveling, reading and spending time outdoors were other favorite pastimes. For her 80th birthday, she went with a friend to New Zealand.
Because of her active lifestyle, the COVID-19 shutdown was hard, Davis said.
“Not being able to see people face to face was difficult for her.”
When PBT returns to Benedum Center in October to open its mainstage season, the company plans to honor Wilde with an opening night tribute and a display of photos and other mementos from her life and career in the lobby.
In addition to her daughter, Wilde is survived by her sister Nora, 95, of Vermont; her son, Youri, of Coraopolis,and three grandsons.